San Diego State went 34-3 in men’s basketball in 2010-11, reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and spent much of the season ranked in the top 10, and logic suggested top 10 recruiting classes wouldn’t be far behind.

Doesn’t work like that.

The top high school prospects from the class of 2011 had signed letters of intent the previous November, and recruits for 2012 were getting ready to make oral commitments. And the heavy lifting for the class of 2013 was already underway.

But members of the class of 2014 were high school freshmen back then, young and impressionable and beginning to formulate opinions about the ever-shifting landscape of college basketball, seeing Kawhi Leonard and Malcolm Thomas and D.J. Gay and San Diego State knock off one big-time program after another.

On Wednesday, the ripple hit the shore.

SDSU received national letters of intent from a four-player class that is ranked in the top 10 nationally by ESPN, rated by two recruiting services as No. 1 on the West Coast and almost certainly is the best in school history. And that's not counting Arizona junior transfer Angelo Chol, a 6-foot-9 forward who is eligible to play next year as well.

There is a three-star (Kevin Zabo), two four-star (Trey Kell and Zylan Cheatham) and a five-star (Malik Pope) prospect. All four made oral commitments in recent months, and Wednesday’s signatures merely made it official.

It also allowed Coach Steve Fisher to talk about it without violating NCAA rules.

“The nice thing about this group is, we didn’t have to get knee pads to recruit them,” Fisher said. “They all had a strong interest out of the gate. They all saw the merits of San Diego State compared to any school that might be looking at them, whether it be Arizona or UCLA or Oregon – any of them. They wanted to be here. That speaks volumes for what the previous groups of kids have done.

“When we were 34-3, we became one of the darlings of the country. We were good. People saw that. Young kids saw it … There’s no question that the success we had then, the ripple effect, had an impact on who we were able to recruit this year.”

A look at the Fab Four:

KEVIN ZABO 6-2, 185 G Quebec, Canada

He was the first of the four to commit, in early August, and was something of a surprise given SDSU’s known interest in five-star point guard Jordan McLaughlin from Rancho Cucamonga. But Aztecs assistant Justin Hutson was quietly pursuing Zabo through connections to his Canadian club team forged while at UNLV during the recruitment of Anthony Bennett. Zabo was not a regular on the AAU circuit over the summer, which is why several recruiting analysts privately say, at three stars, he is vastly underrated. Zabo plays at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., with several other high-major prospects.

Fisher: “He can run the team, but he can also play off the ball. He’s got size and strength, and he is a very intelligent floor leader who knows how to play.”